A Dream Quite Darkening
by StudentofDust
Summary: Savage behavior is mostly condemned by the Kindred community, but seemingly embraced by those of Clan Gangrel when the time is right. This is a tale of one of those times. Both characters in this story are OCs that have been made for a VTM larp that I am a storyteller for. One character is mine, and I have gotten permission to use the other character in this story.


**My first ever submitted VTM story, about two characters in a larp that I am involved in. Khan is my character; Gool is one of my friend's characters. Hope it's not too bad…**

Khan and Gool squared off, their eyes never leaving each other's faces. The size mismatch was immediately evident- while Gool was a shade under five feet tall (he probably would have been taller if it weren't for his bow-legs that cut about three or four inches off his height), Khan stood a mighty seven feet tall and weighed in at an astonishing five hundred pounds.

David and Goliath, it was.

Gool was not stupid, though, in spite of his cretin demeanor. On the contrary, a feral, animalistic intelligence coursed through his veins,which is what reminded him that Khan could probably kill him with just one ursine swipe.

Thus, Gool simply settled for conversation.

"You crossed me!" Gool yelled with abandon, not caring who heard him. In this situation, though, that "who" was no one, as they were in an abandoned building on LA's east side.

In contrast, Khan was being his usual soft-spoken self. "I crossed no one, my Prince. You merely-"

"Silence!" Gool raged, cutting Khan off mid-sentence.

Khan was beginning to get irritated. "Do… not… interrupt me," he intoned. His Russian heritage was starting to take over and when that happened, no brawler- armed or otherwise- could match his skill and ferocity.

"You're making no sense!"

"It is not my fault you do not want to make sense of-"

Gool growled a guttural warning. "_Never_ tell me what I feel or want! You don't know me!"

"Childish pedantics," Khan replied, shaking his head. "Haven't you grown up yet, Gool? Or should I call you Strauss?"

Gool looked at him with an utterly confused expression on his face. Either he was a master at playing dumb, Khan thought, or he genuinely didn't know who Strauss was. He had to know, though; Khan had just seen the demure gentlemen named William Strauss undergo a terrible transformation, into the demonic creature that now called itself Gool.

He had to know… Didn't he?

"Who is Strauss?" Gool screamed. "I am not Strauss! I am Gool!"

"I know this," Khan replied. He decided that a change of tack might be appropriate at that point; he'd save the whole Strauss business for a time when Gool was a bit more… lucid.

"What problem do you have with me?" Khan now asked.

"You oppose me! You sided with the Italian instead of me! You are supposed to have _my_ back!"

Khan remembered now. "I did not side with Formaggioni, your Sheriff. I was merely trying to protect him. He is, after all, an esteemed member of this Domain."

"You tried to attack me! You were on his side!"

Khan sighed. "I was on neither your side, my Prince, nor Mr. Formaggioni's side. Both of you were trying to attack each other, thus why I stood betweel you two. I wanted harm to befall neither party."

Gool was becoming more and more enraged by the second, and Khan could see Gool's nails beginning to lengthen. Being of the same clan as Gool, he recognized the telltale sign that Gool was calling upon what many considered the hallmark indicator of one's blood hearkening to clan Gangrel's roots: their wild claws, able to inflict wounds that were truly grievous to heal.

This also told Khan that the situation that he had been trying to avoid all along was looming close at hand. Khan loathed combat, but when he was forced to fight, then fight he did.

His fights often ended with Khan as the victor, and the opponent dead before him.

Khan looked at Gool again. He knew he needed to end this. Now.

He raised his hands. "Gool, I don't want to fight you. Let us go our separate ways and-"

His sentence was left unfinished, though, due to Gool letting out a bloodthirsty roar and, with claws now fully extended, lunging headlong at Khan.

Khan caught Gool in mid-air. Now that Gool had become the aggressor, Khan finally felt free to do what he neede to do. His muscles rippled with unlocked power and he effortlessly tossed Gool across the room.

Gool slammed into the opposite wall, with such a force that it probably would have broken a mortal's bones upon impact. Gool was no human, though, and neither was Khan.

That is what made this fight so deadly.

In a flash, before Khan could even collect his thoughts or make some semblance of a plan for what to do next, Gool was back upon him. Gool's claws flashed, but Khan barely avoided their deadly tips. Gool tried again, and this time the bladed death found its mark.

Khan roared in enraged pain, and his own claws grew. He slashed with both hands, and scored two direct hits. Gool yelped as deep wounds opened up in his leathery hide.

At once, Khan grabbed Gool and wrapped him up in a giant bear hug. Gool squirmed and tried to break free from Khan's vice grip, to no avail.

"Let this madness go!" Khan bellowed. "Before we both end up in ribbons all over the floor!"

Gool's only response was to bite Khan square on the nose. Khan cursed and dropped Gool suddenly. Gool could not stay upright when he hit the ground and he toppled over, his left leg bent askew where the bone was broken.

Khan went to take advantage of Gool's temporary vulnerable state- he knew about the properties of the Vitae as much as Gool did- but he could not act quickly enough, and Gool healed all the damage that had been done to his leg, straightening it out and making it as though nothing ever happened.

Gool grinned and stood up. "You see now? Your ancestors were wrong not to kill you when you were born!"

Khan saw red for a moment, but managed to keep his composure.

Gool saw Khan's momentary reaction, and pressed further: "No imperfections… Right…! No one should ever have to live like you, a dumb brutish savage-"

This was the last straw; now, he was unable to control his fury. Khan thrust Gool to the ground and began mercilessly pounding him with fist and claw. Mere moments passed as Gool's life ebbed quickly away.

Right before Khan was about to deal the death blow, he gained clarity and looked down at Gool, broken and unable to move or speak. Khan did not shrink away, though, when he saw what it was he had done to Gool.

Rather, he felt elation, and were he human still, that may have scared him a bit. Now, though, he just looked down at Gool and grinned.

"From the children of men, darkness always springs." And with that, he swung his giant clawed hand down towards Gool's throat.

A woman awakens, her heart racing rapidly. She looks around, halfway expecting to find herself in the self-same room she dreamed about.

It is not to be: she finds herself in her own bedroom.

She lays back down on her bed, the sweat from the back of her head mixing with that which is already on her pillow.

Soon, she drifts back to sleep, but not before one final thought crosses the threshold of her mind.

"I wonder who Gool and Khan are…"


End file.
